A New Abhorsen
by accipiter
Summary: A young boy is flung into the position of Abhorsen as the previous Abhorsen rings the final bell. Contains my favorite character from the original series. Feel free to read and review.


The first part of a series about my favorite character from the Abhorsen series. This series is more upbeat than my other Abhorsen based short stories. Enjoy.

**The New Abhorsen: Chapter 1**

Ice shrouded the figure, lonesome upon the hill. The ice covered the figure, barely recognizable as a human, a man. He stood in a diamond of protection, strong, but long in use and fading slowly away. The marks paled in the light of the sun that warmed everything around the figure, but not the figure himself.

The man was in the second level of death, simply standing on the verge of the third gate, wondering if he should go on. He was safe in the second tier of the ladder to complete death. The hunter could not reach him here, there was no possible way. He breathed deeply and stroked the leather across his chest, a bandoleer. The bells on it were new, brought to him by the charter sendings in the house. His house now, he realized, now that his grandmother was dead. He thought about pushing forward in some vain hope that her spirit was not to the final gate. But that was absurd. The seventh bell sent its listeners all the way through death.

The man, actually a boy at the age of fourteen, turned as the rumble of the gate stopped. He turned, but couldn't see the waterfall, it was too far away. He must run. He must hide somewhere in this place of darkness and despair. Where? There is only water. He thought in desperation of going farther into death, to hide this time, but realized that he didn't know the path or spells of the third precinct. It would crush him.

He crouched down in the water to make himself smaller. It wouldn't help, not against the hunter, a powerful necromancer. He would be found. He couldn't hide, he was too young to fight, he would not live. The bells couldn't help him, he could only control Ranna, and that wouldn't be sufficient. There was no option, he would only run.

He ran sideways, parallel to both gates and tried to gain distance, but the running only made loud noise that would alert everything in the realm of death. He stopped again, and turned. A light was behind him, moving slowly, as to mock him. It wasn't the cold blue flame of the necromancer, but the boy ran anyway.

He stumbled over a spirit floating in the water and fell over, more surprised that anything else. The water over came him and washed him to the edge of the gate, its waters whipping around him. He screamed as he fell, but did not fall over the edge into the next gate. A grip was on his jacket collar, but he couldn't turn to see the necromancer and its grinning face. He was placed in a sitting position on the bottom of the river far from the gate.

He turned slowly, shielding himself from his assailant. Instead of the tall and misshapen necromancer, stood a dog. It was black with a brown belly and had a kind and playful face. The strange part of it was its collar, bright, glowing white in the darkness of death. Charter marks ran through the band and swirled around its neck.

"Hello," the dog said, scaring the young man to his feet. "What is a young boy like you doing in death? You haven't already died, have you? And those bells, what are you wearing those for? My, I haven't seen those in a while."

The boy's face was completely astonished. He couldn't even register the hello the dog had given him.

The dog grinned, "I am the Disreputable Dog. You may call me Dog for short if you like."

The boy nodded and made sad attempts to speak.

"Now then, if you are really Abhorsen, then you must be in some kind of trouble to be wandering in death. It isn't a playground." The dog sang in a cheerful voice. It walked behind the boy and pushed him toward the first gate. It barked. The bark echoed through the very marrow of the boy's bones and the gate immediately opened. The dog walked through, then looked over her shoulder. "Well, are you coming?"

The boy nodded and followed the dog into life.


End file.
